Cruise Cancellation Question

[russiangirl]

1 hour ago, kcpvwill said:

Hi again russiangirl

Thanks for your swift response.  Not sure where you are based, but I’ve not seen any book online options on either the UK site or on the US site.  It would be interesting to know how you can do your online search.  

On the US site, after you click on each cruise's page with dates and pricing, there is a red button to click that lets you 'Book it Now". There you can choose you cabin category, and they will show you the available cabins within each option.

[kcpvwill]

Thanks russiangirl

 

No sign of a red ‘book now’ button that I could find, it may not exist if in UK.  I’ve always wondered how you could find out actual available cabins, partly to avoid those (very few) that CC members find noisy.  

[Jammy Bun]

11 hours ago, russiangirl said:

On the US site, after you click on each cruise's page with dates and pricing, there is a red button to click that lets you 'Book it Now". There you can choose you cabin category, and they will show you the available cabins within each option.

We don't seem to have that option here in the UK.  Would be handy, to see which cabins are still available when booking a new cruise.

 

[Jack E Dawson]

18 hours ago, russiangirl said:

We are due to embark on April 1 from Venice on the 14 night  Mediterranean and Italian Sojourn Cruise. How long can Viking wait before they change to another port for embarkation? Our flights were into Milan from the US and have been canceled. If Viking doesn't cancel the entire cruise, and we choose to go, we'll need to re-book our airfare, but not sure where to. Also, there are close to 40 empty cabins now, where 2 weeks ago the cruise was sold out. As more and more people may choose to cancel, does anyone know if Viking will sail with a large number of empty cabins? 

Russiangirl,

Our flights into Venice are still as scheduled. From the States we are flying TPA Portugal into Lisbon on April 3rd, then connecting on to Venice. You might want to look at this as a possible flight option.

 

Jack

[russiangirl]

4 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

Russiangirl,

Our flights into Venice are still as scheduled. From the States we are flying TPA Portugal into Lisbon on April 3rd, then connecting on to Venice. You might want to look at this as a possible flight option.

 

Jack

Thank you! We were thinking Viking would not start the cruise in Venice, so were hoping to wait and hear where it would start before re-bookng.

[Jack E Dawson]

21 hours ago, russiangirl said:

Thank you for this information. We intend to hold on for as long as possible, and are hoping they will re-route us around Venice. We are watching the numbers of people who have the virus increase daily, including the neighboring European countries close to Italy, so not sure where they could actually go. Hope it all works out for all of us!

 

Perhaps I'm just the eternal optimist, but I think my April 6th 10-day Empires of the Mediterranean cruise is going to depart out of Venice as planned. I've been watching the Coronavirus numbers posted on the CDC and WHO. They must be getting their numbers from the same source as they match although WHO posts about 12 hours behind CDC. Anyway, the number of new cases in China has leveled off over the last few days and today actually declined very slightly over the number of new cases the day before. In Italy, the number of new cases had been raising rapidly each day over the past week (300, 300, 500, 500, 800, 800) but it wouldn't surprise me to see it also start leveling off. But what I'm most optimistic about is that out of 4600 confirmed cases in Italy, currently less than 400 are in the Veneto (Venice) region. For Viking, I  think the main issue is going to be the airlines. The couple we are traveling with booked their flights through Viking. Their flights to Venice have now been cancelled by Lufthansa. Viking is trying to find other flights for them. I also think that Viking would have some responsibility if our friends were denied boarding when departing Athens because they had been in Venice in the previous 14 days. 

Worst case scenario, I can see our cruise going in and out of Athens. I'll be very surprised and disappointed if it is cancelled altogether.

 

Jack

 

[philw1776]

NOPE

2 cruises June river & August Ocean still in play

[cruisebug722]

FYI - as an Oceania Cruise past sailor - I just received a general email blast from them that today they took the decision to eliminate all Italy ports of call for April and May.  Will Viking follow????

[Umbrelladog]

6 minutes ago, cruisebug722 said:

FYI - as an Oceania Cruise past sailor - I just received a general email blast from them that today they took the decision to eliminate all Italy ports of call for April and May.  Will Viking follow????

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like the right answer to me. Would like to see Viking follow suit.

[cruisebug722]

2 hours ago, Umbrelladog said:

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like the right answer to me. Would like to see Viking follow suit.

Just received as a previous and booked sailor with NCL a letter from the President and CEO - NCL is avoiding any area denoted as a "Level 4" (which Venice is) and will make the change at least 30 days prior to arrival to avoid any last might changes.  Now the second company so we wait on Viking.

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, cruisebug722 said:

Just received as a previous and booked sailor with NCL a letter from the President and CEO - NCL is avoiding any area denoted as a "Level 4" (which Venice is) and will make the change at least 30 days prior to arrival to avoid any last might changes.  Now the second company so we wait on Viking.

Which Level 4 is Viking referring to?  CDC has Italy at Level 3, the State Department has Veneto  in Italy as Level 4.

[cruisebug722]

8 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

Which Level 4 is Viking referring to?  CDC has Italy at Level 3, the State Department has Veneto  in Italy as Level 4.

Oceania has said they will avoid all of Italy.  NCL says they will avoid State Department  Level 4 areas.  Viking had not chimed in at all.

[Brad1185]

I think until this virus dies down or there is a vaccine the cruise lines are done.  Do you really want to chance having one person infected then everyone has a two week quarantine at the end. This virus will have Have a major Negative impact on the industry for years to come.   

[CharTrav]

On 3/5/2020 at 4:31 PM, russiangirl said:

I'm guesstimating. Each category either says sold out, 1 or 2 or 3 remaining, or limited availability, which I count as 4, or available, which I count as at least 5. You can also go through the motions of trying to book online, and see which cabins are offered as available to book in each category.

 

you  a very patient deliberate person for sure!  😀

btw -- we're on the Barcelona to Athens cruise in May .. and are just holding tight.  Waiting to see what comes. Do appreciate the ability to "pull the plug" at the last  minute (24 hrs in advance) if need be. It really is kind of nerve wracking. But that's the best we can do.

[CharTrav]

On 3/6/2020 at 10:31 PM, 1985rz1 said:

Which Level 4 is Viking referring to?  CDC has Italy at Level 3, the State Department has Veneto  in Italy as Level 4.

Well.. I admit I'm a bit confused too .. From what I can gather Veneto is not a town but like Lombardy is a region. The region of Veneto includes Venice.  Also -- just caught this from the Washington Post, indicating that Venice will be part of the lockdown now.  It wasn't before.  I think it was a particular town in the Veneto region that was the issue before.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/07/coronavirus-live-updates/

[Nippy Sweetie]

Just read that huge parts of Italy are now under quarantine. 14 million people quarantined. Venice is included. I doubt that cruise ships or planes will be able to go anywhere near the place. 

The city of Milan is affected. Events are cancelled. Weddings and funerals are not to happen. The government have apologised but said its necessary. Taking a very firm line. 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Just gone up to 16 million people quarantined in Italy! 🇮🇹

[CharTrav]

In effect until April 3. Question is if it gets extended beyond that (our cruise is in May) or if it is extended to include more of Italy (Florence?) as well as beyond April 3. 

[russiangirl]

5 hours ago, CharTrav said:

In effect until April 3. Question is if it gets extended beyond that (our cruise is in May) or if it is extended to include more of Italy (Florence?) as well as beyond April 3. 

We are scheduled to embark in Venice on April 1, and still no word from Viking.

[ro156542]

We are scheduled to leave for Mediterranean Odyssey on March 22 - 4 ports of call in Italy including disembarking in Venice...and no word from Viking

[jeffbook]

Will wait and see what Viking does now that Venice is under quarantine for our Barcelona departure on March 21 (departure from Barcelona date). Our My Viking Journey's Viking Air web page, we  no longer have any flights listed for us heading to Barcelona or returning from Venice.  Our post cruise extension to Lake Como was cancelled on Tuesday and Delta eliminated our return flight from Milan to JFK.  So, based on what Viking has on our trip web page, we currently have no flight to Barcelona and no return flight to the US from Venice.  (we had Viking do all of our air travel bookings...) So, we will wait and see what happens next.  We still have until March 18 to  cancel and get the voucher, but I think a Viking cancellation of this cruise is a real possibility based on this new quarantine.  Hopefully, we will get an update based on the new quarantine very soon.

 

EDIT:  Just checked the information page on the Venice Airport website using Google Translate, and it appears that the new quarantine allows flights in and out of airports in the affected areas.  The Google  translation appears next:

 

"Coronavirus: Open and operational airport infrastructure
Passengers contact airlines for information on their flights
Rome, 8 March 2020 - With regard to the indications contained in the Presidential Decree of
Council of Ministers of 8 March 2020, related to the coronavirus emergency and which has
remodeled the areas and identified additional measures
national, ENAC informs that all airport infrastructures, including those
within the restricted areas, they are open and operational, as indicated
of the Civil Protection Operational Committee.
ENAC invites passengers with flights booked to and from airports within the areas
with restrictions, contact the reference company for information on the status of the
own flight"

 

I take no responsibility for either the accuracy of this translation or of the information presented in Italian.  It was cut and pasted from the Venice airport website directly into Google translate.  I hope that it is somewhat helpful.

Edited March 8, 2020 by jeffbook
Additional information

[russiangirl]

On 3/8/2020 at 2:16 PM, ro156542 said:

We are scheduled to leave for Mediterranean Odyssey on March 22 - 4 ports of call in Italy including disembarking in Venice...and no word from Viking

Anything yet?

[ro156542]

8 minutes ago, russiangirl said:

Anything yet?

No.  Nothing from Viking!

[russiangirl]

4 minutes ago, ro156542 said:

No.  Nothing from Viking!

Looks like the Mediterranean Odyssey for March 20 and March 25 are now listed as Sold Out, when they had dozens of empty cabins several days ago. Same for the Mediterranean and Italian Sojourn for April 1st. Certainly not sold out, but maybe Viking is getting ready to do something with those cruises that can no longer go to Italy?

[twodjs]

We were booked on the March 20 cruise but decided to move our cruise to the same itinerary in April of 2021, after BA canceled our return flight out of Venice. The Viking change was very easy, but the flight changes (we booked the flights ourselves) have been a nightmare! Because the cruise had not been canceled by Viking, insurance would not kick in, and because the new flights were more than a year out - Virgin Atlantic (upper class) first responded with "sorry, our flight is on time, and we can only rebook into September." So we would lose $8000? "Yes". After several hours of discussion, another agent mentioned a brand new policy this afternoon called Open Ticket, allowing them to rebook into September with no change fees. By that time the April booking window with have opened allowing us to rebook the real dates of our new flights. There may be a change fee then, but certainly better than losing $8000! BA easily refunded our canceled flight from Venice to London. Working on our last leg now. And before anyone wonders why we didn't use Viking Air, we did book with them initially last May, but had an issue and found it easier to book it ourselves.